Innovative wellbeing app helps reduce anxiety, stress and depression

Tuesday 26 May 2015: Innovative digital health and wellbeing company, Musemantik, are releasing Soulight, a mobile app delivering personalised interventions to help people track and reflect on their mood, encourage awareness and mindfulness, boost wellbeing and reduce anxiety, stress, and depression. With support from social investor Nominet Trust, the Scottish Government and New Media Scotland’s Alt-w Fund, Musemantik is today unveiling a free beta version of Soulight to Google Play with the full product set for release in late 2015.

Vicki Hearn, Director, Nominet Trust, says, “We’re hugely excited to be supporting Soulight; while we all know how music can transform our emotions, the health sector has been slow to adopt it as a serious complement to traditional techniques. This is starting to change, however, as traditional providers start to grasp just how powerful an impact music can have on people’s wellbeing – and offer a cost-effective solution. This app has real mass potential; the beta phase of testing will ensure it is delivering the right support and user journey.”

Soulight is a wonderful tool for everyone, especially those suffering from depression, the most common healthcare problem in the UK, affecting one in five adults at some point in their lives. The NHS estimates the economic cost of anxiety, stress and depression to be over £105 billion each year, including treatment costs, lost productivity at work and reduced quality of life, and these figures represent just those that seek help; many suffer in silence.

“A number of recent path-breaking studies in areas such as mindfulness, music therapy, and acceptance and commitment therapy show there are innovative approaches for treating the lack of mental wellbeing. We value interdisciplinary innovation and are inspired by all of these methods,” says Maciej Zurawski, Founder and CEO, Musemantik. “Soulight uses a unique combination of simple words, emoticons, colours and music to help people find their emotional state and bring awareness to it in a mindful way; helping them feel better.”

Musemantik is an Edinburgh-based digital health and wellbeing company founded by Dr Maciej Zurawski, an entrepreneur and composer who holds a Ph.D. in Informatics from the University of Edinburgh’s Artificial Intelligence Instituteand experienced business professional, Diwakar Thakore, a MBA alumnus from University of Edinburgh and currently Chapter Leader of Health 2.0, Edinburgh, Scotland.

Soulight is powered by MusicFlow, Musemantik’s innovative music technology platform that enables delivery of personalised experiences on the web and on mobile.